THE     DE    SOT  A 

,  1.  QL,  Suntnnbrr  IS,  1000. 


My  Dear  Sir: 

There  has  just  been  issued  a  small  volume  copyrighted,  entit 
led.,  "The  Raid  Of  John  Brown  As  I  Saw  It"  from  the  pen  of 
"Rev.  Samuel  Vanderlip  Leech,  D.  D.,  of  Washington,  D.  C.," 
who  has  been  a  Methodist  Episcopal  Minister  for  52  years.  For 
this  book  The  Maurice  Engraving  Company  furnished  the  latest 
portrait  of  Captain  John  Brown.  The  edition  is  limited  to  four 
hundred  copies.  They  are  not  sold  at  any  store.  The  object  of 
the  publication  is  to  place  on  the  shelves  of  Libraries,  Colleges, 
Universities  and  Historical  societies,  from  the  southern  stand 
point,  an  accurate  narrative  of  the  raid,  and  the  events  associated 
with  it.  I  was  22  years  of  age,  was  preaching  close  to  Harper's 
Ferry,  saw  the  fighting  and  capture  and  visited  Brown  in  his 
prison.  I  was  a  witness  of  the  events  of  the  forty  four  days  inter 
vening  between  the  raid  and  his  execution. 

His  partisan  biographers  were  not  in  Virginia  at  that  time. 
Their  books  contain  historical  errors  and  much  romance.  Their 
abuse  of  the  Virginians  is  unfair.  I  am  a  Republican,  and  have 
steadily  voted  for  Republican  Presidents.  But  I  think  the  time  has 
come  when  a  truthful  version  of  this  famous  raid  should  find  a  place 
in  national  literature.  I  think  that  you  will  agree  with  me.  On 
receipt  of  a  money  order  for  45  cents  I  will  mail  to  you  a  post-paid 
copy  of  this  small  volume 

With  Respect, 

S.  V.  LEECH. 


Copyright  by  S.  V.  I.eech,  1909.) 


THE  RAID  OF  JOHN  BROWN  AT  HARPER'S 
FERRY  AS  I  SAW  IT. 


H3v  REV.  SAMUEL  VAKDERLIP  LEECH,  D.  D. 


HE  town  of  Harper's  Ferry  is  located  in  Jefferson 
County,  West  Virginia.  Lucerne,  in  Switzerland 
does  not  excel  it  in  romantic  grandeur  of  situation. 
On  its  northern  front  the  Potomac  sweeps  along  to 
pass  the  national  capital,  and  the  tomb  of  Washington,  in 
its  silent  flow  towards  the  sea.  On  its  eastern  side  the 
Shenandoah  hurries  to  empty  its  waters  into  the  Potomac, 
that  in  perpetual  wedlock  they  may  greet  the  stormy  At 
lantic.  Across  the  Potomac  the  Maryland  Heights  stand  out- 
as  the  tall  sentinels  of  Nature.  Beyond  the  Shenandoah  are 
the  Blue  Ridge  mountains,  fringing  the  westward  boundary 
of  Loudon  County,  Virginia.  Between  these  rivers,  and 
nestling  inside  of  their  very  confluence,  reposes  Harper's 
Ferry.  Back  of  its  hills  lies  the  famous  Shenandoah  Valley, 
celebrated  for  its  natural  scenery,  its  historic  battles  and 
"Sheridan's  Ride."  At  Harper's  Ferry  the  United  States^ 
authorities  early  located  an^Arsenal  and  an  Armory! 

Before  the  Civil  War,  the  Baltimore  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church^  was  constituted  of  five  exten 
sive  districts  in  Virginia,  stretching  from  Alexandria  to  Lew- 
isburg  and  two  great  districts  north  of  the  Potomac,  in 
cluding  the  cities  of  Washington  and  Baltimore.  The  first 
three  years  of  my  ministerial  life  I  spent  on  Shepherdstown, 
West  Loudon  and  Hillsboro  Circuits,  being  then  all  in  Vir 
ginia.  The  State  of  West  Virginia,  now  embracing  Har 
per's  Ferry,  had  not  been  organized  by  Congress  as  a  war 
measure  out  of  the  territory  of  the  mother  State.  Our  Meth 
odist  Episcopal  Church  was  theoretically  an  anti-slavery  or- 

M198488 


4  THE    RAID    OP    JOHN    BROWN 


ganization ;  but  our  Virginia  and  Maryland  members  held 
thousands  of  inherited  and  many  purchased  slaves.  These 
were  generally  well-cared  for  and  contented.  Being  close  to 
the  free  soil  of  Pennsylvania  they  could  have  gotten  there  in 
a  night  had  they  wished  to  escape  bondage,  and  then  they 
could  have  easily  reached  Canada_by  that  Northern  aid,  called 
the  "Underground  Railroad." 

On  the  Sunday  night  when  John  Brown  and  his  men  in 
vaded  Virginia,  I  slept  within  a  half  mile  of  Harper's  Ferry. 
That  day  I  inaugurated  revival  services  at  my  westward  ap 
pointment,  called  "Ebenezer,"  in  London  County  two  miles 
from  Harper's  Ferry.  I  wras  twenty-two  years  of  age. 

Three  months  before  this  raid  Captain  John  Brown  with 
two  of  his  sons,  Owen  and  Oliver,  and  Jeremiah  G.  Ander 
son,  calling  themselves  "Isaac  Smith  and  Sons"  rented  a  small 
farm  on  the  Maryland  side  of  the  Potomac  four  miles  from 
Harper's  Ferry.  It  was  known  as  the  "Booth-Kennedy 
Place."  They  also  carried  on  across  the  mountains  at 
Chambersburg,  Pennsylvania,  a  small  hardware  store  man 
aged  by  John  H.  Kagi.  It  w^as  a  depot  for  the  munitions  of 
war  to  be  hauled  to  their  Maryland  farm.  Another  of  Brown's 
men,  John  E.  Cook,  sold  maps  in  the  vicinity.  He  was  a  rel 
ative  of  Governor  Willarcl  of  Indiana  who  secured  the  serv 
ices  of  Hon.  Daniel  W.  Voorhees,  Attorney  General  of  Indi 
ana,  to  defend  Cook  at  his  after  trial  in  Virginia. (It  was  a 
a/time  of  profound  national  peace.  Brown  and  his  men  rep 
resented  themselves  as  geologists,  miners  and  speculators. 
They  had  a  mule  and  wagon  with  which  to  haul  their  boxes 
from  Chambersburg./  A  wealthy  merchant  of  Boston,  Mr. 
George  Luther  Stearns,  Chairman  of  the  Massachusetts  Aid 
Society  had  financed  Brown's  Kansas  border  warfare  work, 
as  well  as  his  approaching  Harper's  Ferry  raid.'  Other 
Northern  friends  assisted.  Brown  had  completed  his  prep 
arations  and  collected  his  twenty-one  helpers  early  in  Oc 
tober.  1859.  HC  nacl  hidden  in  an  old  log  cabin  on  the  place 
200  Sharpe's  rifles,  13,000  rifle  cartridges,  950  long  iron  pikes, 
200  revolving  pistols,  100,000  pistol  caps,  40,000  percussion 
caps.  250  pounds  of  powder,  12  reams  of  cartridge  paper  and 


THE   RAID   OF   JOHN   BROWN 


other  warlike  materials.  He  organized  his  twenty-two  men. 
himself  included,  into  a  ''Military  Provisional  Government" 
to  superintend  the  possible  uprising  of  the  slaves  of  Virginia. 
Thirteen  of  these  men  had  engaged  in  border  warfare  in  Kan 
sas,  in  a  successful  effort  to  prevent  Kansas  from  becoming 
a  slave  state.  He,  sixteen  other  white  men  and  five 
negroes,  constituted  his  entire  Virginia  army/  The  white 
men  were  Captain  John  Brown,  Adjutant  General  John  H. 
Kagi,  Captains  Owen  Brown,  Oliver  Brown,  Watson  Brown, 
Aaron  D.  Stephens,  John  E.  Cook,  Dauphin  Adolphus  Thomp 
son,  George  P.  Tidd,  William  Thompson  and  Edwin  Cop- 
poc.  The  Lieutenants  were  Jeremiah  G.  Anderson,  Albert 
Hazlitt  and  William  Henry  Leeman.  The  privates  number 
ed  eight.  Three  of  them  were  white  men  and  five  were  ne 
groes.  The  whites  were  Francis  J.  Merriam,  Barclay  Coppoc 
and  Steward  Taylor.  The  negroes  were  Dangerfield  Newby, 
Osborne  P.  Anderson,  John  A.  Copeland,  Sherrard  Lewis 
Leary  and  Shields  Green. 

On    Sunday    mjorning,    October    i6th,    1859,    Brown    as-^ 
sembled  his  men  and  informed  them  that  on  that  night  their 
invasion  into  Virginia  would  take  place.     They  took  the  oath 
of   •allegiance    to    the    "Provisional    Government."     Adjutant 
General  Kagi  presented  to  each  officer  his  commission.  / 

The  contents  of  the  Armory,  Arsenal  and  Hall's  Rifle 
Works  were  daily  open  to  public  inspection.  Captain  John 
Brown  well  knew  that  Daniel  Whelan  was  the  only  watch 
man,  during  the  night  time,  at  the  Armory  grounds.  He  be\ 
lieved  that  if  he  could  secure  the  arms  and  ammunition  in 
these  buildings,  carry  them  into  the  justnesses  of  the  ad 
jacent  mountains,  and  then  unfurl  the  flag  of  freedom  for 
all  slaves  who  would  flock  to  his  standard,  the  result  would 
be  a  general  uprising  of  the  negro  population  throughout 
the  border  states.  A  more  idiotic  and  senseless  theory  never 
entered  an  American  mind.  In  the  superlative  degree  it  was 
unreasonable  and  ridiculous.  I  personally  know  of  the  gen 
eral  loyally  of  the  slaves  to  their  masters  in  that  locality, 
at  that  period  in  our  national  history.  Federal  generals  were 


astonished  at  the   devotion  of  the  negroes  to  their   masters 


6  THE   RAID   OF    JOHN   BROWN 

x      everywhere  in  the  South  after  the  war  had  begun.     This  was 
especially  true  along  the  border  states.    But  John  Brown — 
I      honest,   enthusiastic    and    intensely    fanatical    on    the    slavery 
^question — issued    his    commands.     On    this      Sunday    he    as 
signed  to  each  his   earliest  work.     Captain     Owen     Brown, 
Barclay  Coppoc  and  Francis  J.   Merriam  were  to  remain  at 
—    the  farm   to   guard   the  arms   and   ammunition.     Hence   only 
nineteen  left  tlie  Kennedy  farm.     They  were  to  walk  down  the 
river  road  on  the  Maryland  side  to  the  Maryland  end  of  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad  bridge.     The  Virginia  end  was 
close    to    the    depot,   hotel.    Armory   and   the    Arsenal.     Cap 
tain  John  Brown  was  to  ride  in  the  wagon  with  the  necessary 
guns,  pistols  and  tools.    Captains  Cook  and  Tidd  were  to  go  in 
advance  and  cut  the  telegraph  wires  on  the  Maryland  side. 
Captain  Stephens  and  Adjutant  General  Kagi  were  to  capture 
Mr.  Williams,  the  guard  of  the  bridge.   Captain  Watson  Brown 
^          and  Taylor  were  to  hold  up  the  passenger  train  due  from  the 
§          west  at  I  140  A.  M.     It  would  be  bound  for  Washington  and 
Jj  Baltimore.    Captain  Oliver  Brown  and  Thompson  were  to  hold 

^  the  bridges  spanning  the  two  rivers.     Captain  Dauphin  Adol- 

$  phus  Thompson  and  Lieutenant  Anderson  were  to  hold  the 

s^  first  building  in  the  Armory  grounds  popularly  known  after- 

o  wards    as   "John   Brown's   Fort."  (  It   was   the    engine   house 

where  Brown  held  his  most  distinguished  prisoners.     From 
the  portholes  of  it  that  they  made  after  his  entrance,  his  men 
O  did  their  final  fighting.  I  Captain     Coppoc     and     Lieutenant 

Hazlitt  were  to  hold  trie  Arsenal  outside  and  opposite  the 
Armory  gates.  Adjutant  General  Kagi  and  Copeland  were 
to  seize  and  retain  Hall's  Rifle  Works.  They  were  half  of 
a  mile  up  the  western  shore  of  the  Shenandoah.  Cap 
tain  Stephens,  and  such  men  as  he  might  select,  wrere  to  go 
out  to  the  home  of  Colonel  Lewis  W.  Washington,  the  grand 
nephew  of  General  George  Washington,  and  bring  him  and 
some  of  his  adult  male  slaves,  to  the  engine  house.  They 
were  also  to  secure  the  swords  presented  to  General  George 
Washington  by  Frederick  the  Great  and  by  General  Lafayette. 
For  this  object  Stephens  selected  as  his  helpers  Captains  Tidd 
and  Cook  and  privates  Leary,  Green  and  Anderson.  Brown 


THE   RAID   OF    JOHN   BROWN 


made  the  raid  at  11:30  that  night.    Mr.  Williams  the  bridge 
guard  was  captured  by  Stephens  and  Kagi.     The  watchman 
at  the  Armory,  Daniel  Whelan,  refused  Brown  and  his  men 
admission  to  the  grounds.     They  broke  the  locks  with  tools,       i^ 
captured  Whelan,  and  took  possession  of  the  Armory  and  also       »-i 
of  the  Arsenal  outside.    The  following  prisoners  were  brought       ff 
in  early  on  Monday  and  placed  in  the  engine  house :   Jesse  W.        g 
Graham  who  was  master  workman,  Colonel  Lewis  W.  Wash-      ^ 
ington,    Terance    Byrne,    John    M.    Allstadt,    John    Donohue,        g 
who  was  clerk  of  the  railroad  company ;  Benjamin  F.  Mills,        p, 
the  master  armorer;  Armstead  M.  Ball,  the  master  machinist;        £> 
Archibald  M.  Kitzmiller,  assistant  superintendent ;  Isaac  Rus-        g 
sell,  a  Justice  of  the  Peace;  George  D.  Shope,  of  Frederick        j^ 
and  J.  Bird,  Arsenal  armorer.     The  white  prisoners  were  to 
be  held  as   hostages  and  the  blacks  were  to  be  armed   and 
placed    in    Brown's    army.     Cook    and    Tidd    evidently    mis 
trusted    their    surroundings.     During    the    night    they    made 
their  way  back  to  the  farm  and  hastily  escaped  into   Penn 
sylvania.     Captain   Watson   Brown   and  Taylor  held  up   the 
train  bound  for  Baltimore,  detaining  it  for  three  hours.     The 
colored   porter   of   the   degpot,   Shepherd    Hay  ward,   went   out 
on  the  bridge  to  hunt  for  Williams.     He  was  brutally  shot 
by__nne  of  P>rownV  bnVlo-p  o-nar(k    Hayward  managed  to  crawl 
to  the  baggage  room  where  he  died  at  noon  on  Monday.     Dr. 
John  Starry  dressed  his  wounds  and  ministered  to  his  every 
want.     The  physician  was  under  the  impression  that  a  band 
of  train  robbers  had  captured  the  depot.     He  told  this  to  Mr. 
Kitzmiller  before  Kitzmiller's  imprisonment.   -  Captain   E.   P. 
Dangerfield,  clerk  to  the  paymaster,  entered  the  grounds  and 
was  hustled  into  the  engine  house  quite  early  in  the  morning. 
Numerous  arriving  workmen  were  imprisoned  in   an  adjoin 
ing  building.     Colonel  Washington  said  that  fully  sixty  men 
were  imprisoned  by  eight  o'clock  on  Monday  morning.     The 
citizens   were   hearing  of  the   situation.     Xewby  and   Green, 
negroes,  were  stationed  at  the  junction  of  High  and  Shen- 
andoah   streets.     Xewby   shot   at   and   killed   Captain    George 
W.  Turner,  a  graduate  of  West  Point.     Green  shot  and  killed 
Mr.  Thomas  Boerlev,  a  grocer.    Dr.  Claofcrett  attended  Boer- 


8  THE   RAID   OF    JOHN   BROWN 


ley,  who  also  soon  died.  After  the  mulatto  had  shot  Turner, 
a  man  named  Bogert  entered  the  residence  of  Mrs.  Stephen- 
son  by  a  rear  door.  Having  no  bullet  he  put  a  large  nail  into 
his  gun,  went  up  stairs  and  shot  Xewby,  the  nail  cutting  his 
throat  from  ear  to  ear.  He  was  also  shot  in  the  stomach  by 
some  one  else.  I  saw  him  die,  in  great  agony,  with  an  in 
furiated  crowd  around  him.  About  ten  o'clock  in  the  morn 
ing,  armed  citizens  crossed  the  Potomac  and  Shenandoah 
rivers  to  prevent  the  escape  by  the  bridges,  or  by  water,  of  any 
of  the  raiders.  Some  walked  down  the  Maryland  river  road 
and  wounded  Captain  Oliver  Brown  on  the  bridge.  He 
reached  the  engine  house  but  soon  died  beside  his  father. 
Citizens  seized  the  uninjured  prisoner,  Captain  Thompson, 
and  put  him  under  guard  at  the  Gait  hotel.  Captain  Stephens 
tried  to  reach  the  hotel  to  propose,  as  he  stated,  terms  of  sur 
render.  George  Chambers  wounded  him,  and  then  assisted 
him  into  the  Gait  hotel,  where  his  wrounds  were  dressed. 
About  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  Jefferson  Guards 
from  Charlestown  commanded  by  Captain  J.  "YY.  Rowen  ar 
rived.  A  half  hour  passed  and  the  Hamtramck  guards  under 
Captain  V.  M.  Butler  came  to  the  Ferry.  They  were  fol 
lowed  by  the  Shepherdstown  Mounted  Troop  commanded  by 
Captain  Jacob  Reinhart.  Then  a  military  company  from 
Martinsburg  twenty  miles  distant  reached  the  place,  under 
the  command  of  Captain  Alburtis.  Colonels  W.  R.  Baylor 
and  John  T.  Gibson  took  the  general  direction  of  the  military 
affairs.  Some  soldiers  crossed  the  Shenandoah  along  with 
armed  citizens  to  intercept  the  four  raiders  Kagi,  Leary,  Lee- 
man  and  Copeland,  when  they  should  be  driven  out  of  Hall's 
Rifle  Works.  These  raiders  also  had  in  these  works  one  of 
Colonel  AVashington's  slaves  pressed  into  their  service.  All 
of  them  ran  out  into  the  river  to  swim  across  to  the  London 
County  shore.  All  were  shot  to  death  in  the  river  with  the 
exception  of  Copeland.  He  threw  up  his  hands  and  sur 
rendered.  During  the  excitement  Hazlitt  and  the  negro 
Anderson  left  the  Arsenal  and,  undetected,  escaped  into  Penn 
sylvania.  Early  in  the  morning  Captain  Owen  Brown,  Bar 
clay  Coppoc  and  Merriam  had  deserted  the  Kennedy  farm 


THE   RAID   OF   JOHN   BROWN  9 

and  gone  north.  Thus  seven  of  the  twenty-two  men  fled  to 
the  North.  Cook  and  Hazlitt  were  captured.  They  were  re 
turned  to  Virginia,  tried  and  executed. 

By  2  o'clock  P.  M.,  the  town  and  hills  swarmed  with 
militia  and  citizens.  Brown  had  barricaded  the  engine  house 
doors  with  the  engine  and  reel.  Inside  were  Captains  John 
Brown  and  his  son  Watso'n ;  also  Captain  Oliver  Brown,  who 
was  soon  dead ;  Shields  Green,  Captain  Edwin  Coppoc,  Lieu 
tenant  Jeremiah  G.  Anderson,  Captain  Dauphin  Adolphus 
Thompson  and  ten  white  prisoners.  The  numerous  prison 
ers,  mostly  workmen,  in  the  adjoining  structure  had  all  es 
caped  from  the  grounds,  Brown  having  no  port-holes  on  that 
side  of  his  fort.  The  militia  were  afraid  to  fire  into  the  port 
holes  for  fear  of  killing  some  of  the  prominent  prisoners. 
About  4  o'clock  the  Mayor,  Mr.  Fontaine  Beckham,  aged 
sixty  years,  who  was  also  station  agent  of  the  railroad  com 
pany,  went  out  on  the  platform  unarmed.  He  was  shot  dead 
by  the  negro  Shields  Green.  Captain  Watson  Bro'wn  in  the 
engine  house  received  his  death  wound  soon  afterwards. 
Mayor  Beckham  was  very  much  beloved  by  the  people.  A 
number  of  citizens  hurried  into  the  hotel  and  brutally  seized 
Captain  Thompson,  threw  him  over  the  wall  into  the  Po 
tomac  and  riddled  him  with  bullets.  Mrs.  Foulke  of  the 
hotel,  and  her  colored  porter,  went  to  the  platform  and 
brought  in  the  dead  body  of  the  Mayor. 

As  night  was  settling  on  the  excited  city  a  military  com 
pany  from  Winchester,  Virginia,  commanded  by  Captain  B. 
B.  Washington,  arrived  by  a  Shenandoah  Valley  train. 
Shortly  thereafter  a  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad  train  brought 
several  companies  of  soldiers  from  Frederick,  Maryland. 
They  were  commanded  by  Colonel  Shriver.  Soo'n  several  in 
dependent  companies  from  Baltimore,  accompanied  by  the 
Second  Light  Brigade,  arrived  under  the  general  command 
of  General  Charles  C.  Edgerton.  Colonel  Robert  E.  Lee  of 
the  United  States  army,  overtook  these  troops  at  Sandy  Hook, 
a  mile  and  a  half  below  the  Ferry  on  the  Maryland  side.  He 
had  come  from  Washington  with  several  companies  of  ma- 


10  THE   RAID   OF   JOHN   BROWN 


rines.  He  was  accompanied  by  Lieutenant  J.  E.  B.  Stuart, 
afterwards  a  famous  Confederate  Cavalry  General;  also  by 
Major  Russell  and  by  Lieutenant  Israel  Green,  who  died  sev 
eral  months  ago  in  the  West.  All  were  regular  army  officers. 
Colonel  Lee  regarded  it  as  unwise  to  attack  the  engine  house 
that  night,  fearing  that  Colonel  Lewis  W.  Washington  or 
other  prisoners  might  be  killed.  Early  in  the  morning  he 
sent  Lieutenant  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  who  had  once  held  Brown  as 
a  prisoner  in  Kansas,,  to  demand  an  immediate  and  uncondi 
tional  surrender.  Brown  refused  to  trust  himself  and  men 
to  the  United  States  officers.  About  this  time  Colonel  Rob 
ert  E.  Lee  got  within  range  of  Captain  Coppoc's  rifle.  Pris 
oners  said  that  Mr.  Graham  knocked  the  muzzle  aside.  Lee's 
life  was  saved.  Had  he  been  then  killed  who  knows  that  the 
battles  of  Antietam,  Gettysburg,  and  the  final  conflicts  north 
of  the  Appotnattox  would  have  ever  been  fought?  On  the 
Confederate  side  no  abler  general  or  more  magnificent  man, 
ever  sat  on  a  saddle  than  Robert  E.  Lee.  He  was  the  son  of 
"Light  Horse  Harry  Lee,"  a  brave  Major  General  of  the  Rev 
olutionary  War.  He  was  the  father  of  William  Henry  Fitz- 
hugh  Lee,  who  became  a  Major  General  of  the  Confederate 
forces  of  Virginia,  at  a  later  date.  General  Robert  E.  Lee 
made  a  brilliant  record  in  the  Mexican  war  as  Chief  Engineer 
of  the  United  States  army.  After  surrendering  his  decimated 
army  to  General  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  at  Appomattox,  he  ac 
cepted  the  political  situation  with  dignity.  He  became 
President  of  the  Washington  University  at  Lexington,  Vir 
ginia.  The  South  lavished  on  him  every  possible  honor. 
During  the  late  summer  the  Virginia  legislature  placed  in  the 
National  Hall  of  Fame,  at  the  United  States  Capitol,  two  fine 
statues  of  two  representative  men  of  their  state.  One  was 
the  statue  of  General  George  Washington ;  the  other  that  of 
General  Robert  E.  Lee. 

By  the  advice  of  Colonel  Lewis  W.  Washington  all  of 
Brown's  prisoners  mounted  the  fire  engine  and  the  reel  car 
riage  and  lifted  up  their  hands  when  the  attack  began.  Three 
marines  undertook  to  batter  down  the  doors  with  heavy 


THE  RAID  OF   JOHN  BROWN  11 

sledge  hammers.  They  were  not  successful.  Then  twelve 
marines  struck  the  doors  with  the  end  of  a  strong  ladder. 
They  opened.  Lieutenant  Green  entered  first  of  all  amidst  a 
shower  of  bullets.  Discovering  Brown  reloading  his  rifle 
he  sprang  on  him  with  his  sword  and  cut  his  head  and 
stomach.  The  raider  Captain  Anderson  rose  to  shoot  Green.' 
A  marine  named  Luke  Ouinn  ran  his  bayonet  through  him. 
Another  raider  shot  Luke  Ouinn  who  soon  died.  Two  other 
marines  were  wounded.  I  saw  Captains  Anderson  and  Wat 
son  Brown  as  they  lay  dying  on  the  grass  after  their  capture. 
The  dead  body  of  Captain  Oliver  Brown  lay  beside  them. 
Captain  Watson  Brown  had  been  dying  for  sixteen  hours. 
Captain  John  Brown,  bleeding  profusely,  and  Captain  Steph 
ens  from  the  hotel,  were  carried  into  the  paymaster's  office. 
Brown's  long  grey  beard  was  stained  with  wet  blood.  He 
was  bare  headed.  His  shirt  and  trousers  were  grey  in  color. 
His  trousers  were  tucked  into  the  top  of  his  boots.  Captain 
Coppoc  and  the  negro  Green  were  also  taken  prisoners.  They 
were  not  wounded. 

As  Brown  lay  on  the  floor  of  the  paymaster's  office  he 
was  very  cool  and  courageous.  Governor  Henry  A.  Wise, 
United  States  Senator  J.  M.  Mason  of  Virginia  and  Honor 
able  Clement  L.  Vallandingham  of  Ohio  plied  him  witli  many 
questions.  To  all  he  gave  intelligent  and  fearless  replies^ 
He  refused  to  involve  his  Northern  financiers  and  advisers. 
He  took  the  entire  responsibility  on  himself.  He  told  Gov~ 
ernor  Wise  that  he,  Brown,  was  simply  "An  instrument  in 
the  hands  of  Providence."  He  said  to  some  newspaper  cor 
respondents  and  others:  "I  wish  to  say  that  you  had  better 
— all  you  people  of  the  South — prepare  for  a  settlement  of 
this  question.  You  may  dispose  of  me  very  easily.  I  am 
nearly  disposed  of  now.  But  this  question  is  yet  to  be  set 
tled — this  negro  question  I  mean.  The  end  is  not  yet.'''  Be-^ 
fore  thirteen  months  had  passed  one  of  the  greatest  Ameri 
cans  of  any  century,  Abraham  Lincoln,  had  been  elected 
President  of  the  United  States;  the  Republican  party  was 
for  the  first  time  dominating  national  affairs  and,  soon  there- 


12  THE   RAID   OF   JOHN   BROWN 

after,  the   Civil   War  was  begun    which    culminated    in    the 
physical  freedom  of  every  slave  in  this  Republic. 

On  Wednesday  Captains  John  Brown,  Stephens  and 
Coppoc,  along  with  Copeland  and  Green,  were  removed  to 
the  county  jail  at  Charlestown,  ten  miles  south  of  Harper's 
Ferry.  Being  acquainted  with  the  jailor,  Captain  John  Avis, 
I  was  permitted  to  visit  Brown  on  one  occasion.  Captain 
Aaron  D.  Stephens  was  lying  on  a  cot  in  the  same  room.  I 
/'was  told  that  Brown  had  ordered  out  of  his  room  a  Presby 
terian  minister  named  Lowrey  when  he  had  proposed  to  offer 
prayer.  He  had  also  said  to  my  first  colleague,  Rev.  James 
H.  March,  "You  do  not  know  the  meaning  of  the  word  Chris 
tianity.  Of  course  I  regard  you  as  a  gentleman,  but  only  as 
a  heathen  gentleman."  I  was  advised  to  say  nothing  to  him 
about  prayer.  He  had  told  other  visitors  that  he  wanted  no 
minister  to  pray  with  him  who  would  not  be  willing  to  die 
to  free  a  slave.  I  was  not  conscious  that  I  was  ready  for 
martyrdom  from  Brown's  standpoint.  I  have  never  been 
anxious  to  die  to  save  the  life  of  any  body.  My  life  is  as 
valuable  to  me  and  my  family  as  any  other  man's  is  to  him 
and  his  family.  But  young  as  I  was  I  hated  American 
slavery.  I  was  a  "boy  minister"  of  a  great  anti-slavery  de 
nomination  of  Christians.  For  more  than  a  century  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  carried  in  its  Disciplines  its 
printed  testimony  against  slavery.  It  is  to-day  the  largest 
fully  organized  anti-slavery  society  on  earth.  I  would  have 
gladly  offered  prayer  in  Brown's  room  at  Charlestown  if  an 
honorable  opportunity  had  been  afforded. 

At  his  preliminary  examination  before  five  justices.  Col 
onel  Davenport  presiding,  Brown  said :  "Virginians !  I  did 
not  ask  for  quarter  at  the  time  I  was  taken.  I  did  not  ask  to 
have  my  life  spared.  Your  governor  assured  me  of  a  fair 
trial.  If  you  seek  my  blood  you  can  have  it  at  any  time 
without  this  mockery  of  a  trial.  I  have  no  counsel.  I  have 
not  been  able  to  advise  with  any  one.  I  know  nothing  of 
the  feelings  of  my  fellow  prisoners  and  am  utterly  unable  to 
attend  to  my  own  defense.  If  a  ifair  trial  is  to  be  allowed 
there  are  mitigating  circumstances  to  be  urged.  But,  if  we 


THE  RAID  OF   JOHN  BROWN  13 

are  forced  with  a  mere  form,  a  trial  for  execution,  you  might 
spare  yourselves  that  trouble.     I  am  ready  for  my  fate." 

Two  very  able  Virginia  attorneys  were  assigned  as  a 
matter  of  State  form  as  counsel  for  Brown.  They  were 
Honorable  Charles  J.  Faulkner  of  Martinsburg,  afterwards 
United  States  Envoy  Extraordinary  to  France,  and  Judge 
Green,  Ex-Mayor  of  Charlestown.  The  county  grand  jury 
indicted  Brown  on  three  separate  charges:  first,  conspiracy 
with  slaves  for  purposes  of  insurrection ;  second,  treason 
against  the  commonwealth  of  Virginia;  third,  murder  in  the 
first  degree.  Mr.  Faulkner  withdrew  from  the  case  and  Mr. 
Lawson  Botts  took  his  place.  Mr.  Samuel  Chilton  a  learned 
lawyer  of  Washington,  D.  C.,  and  Judge  Henry  Griswold  of 
Ohio,  another  distinguished  attorney,  volunteered  their  serv 
ices  as  counsel  for  John  Brown  and  were  accepted.  Some  of 
Brown's  friends  sent  an  excellent  young  lawyer  named  George 
H.  Hoyt  from  Boston,  as  additional  counsel.  These  attorneys 
made  an  able  defense,  whatever  may  have  been  their  private 
opinion  as  to  Brown's  guilt  or  innocence.  The  prosecuting  at 
torney  for  the  State  of  Virginia  was  Andrew  Hunter,  an  ex 
ceptionally  brilliant  orator  and  able  lawyer.  He  was  a  courtly 
and  commanding  speaker.  He  was  gifted  with  a  rich  and 
powerful  voice.  After  the  indictment  of  Brown  by  the  court 
of  justices,  the  prosecuting  attorney  of  Jefferson  county,  Mr. 
Charles  B.  Harding  left  the  prosecution  almost  exclusively 
to  Mr.  Andrew  Hunter,  who  represented  the  State.  So  too, 
after  the  arrival  of  Brown's  chosen  outside  counsel,  Judge  \ 
Green  and  Mr.  Lawson  Botts  withdrew,  in  good  taste,  from  /^ 
his  defense. 

At  the   regular  trial   Brown's  counsel  requested  a  post 
ponement   on    account   of   the     prisoner's     health.     But     Dr. 
Mason,   his    physician,    attested    the    physical    ability    of    his 
patient  to  undergo  the   strain.     The  State  was  spending  al-l 
most  a  thousand  dollars  a  day  for  military  guards  and  other ' 
items.     When  Brown's  counsel  presented  telegrams  from  his 
relatives  asking  for  delay  until  they  could  forward  proofs  of 
his  insanity,  Brown  said,  "I  will  say,  if  the  court  will  allow 
me,  that  I  look  on  this  as  a  miserable  artifice  and  trick  of 


14  THE   RAID   OF   JOHN   BROWN 

those  who  ought  to  take  a  different  course  in  regard  to  me 
if  they  take  any  at  all.  I  view  it  with  contempt  more  than 
otherwise.  I  am  perfectly  unconscious  of  insanity  and  I  re 
ject,  so  far  as  I  am  capable,  any  attempts  to  interfere  in  my 
behalf  on  that  score." 

On  the  last  day  of  the  trial,  October  3Tst,  after  six 
hours  of  argument  by  Hunter,  Chilton  and  Griswold,  the 
jury  delivered  the  following  verdict:  ''Guilty  of  treason, 
and  of  conspiring  and  advising  with  slaves  and  others  to  rebel ; 
and  of  murder  in  the  first  degree/'  On  Wednes 
day,  November  the  2nd,  he  was  brought  into  court  to 
receive  his  sentence.  The  County  Clerk,  Robert  H.  Brown, 
asked :  "  Have  you  anything  to  say  why  sentence  should 
not  be  passed  on  you?"  Brown,  leaning  on  a  cane,  slowly 
arose  from  his  chair  and  with  plaintive  emphasis  addressed 
Judge  Parker  as  follows : 

^.  "I  have,  may  it  please  the  court,  a  few  words  to  say. 
In  the  first  place  I  deny  everything  but  what  I  have  all 
along  admitted,  the  design  on  my  part  to  free  the  slaves. 
I  certainly  intended  to  have  made  a  clean  thing  of 
that  matter  as  I  did  last  winter  when  I  went  into 
Missouri  and  took  slaves  without  the  snapping  of  a  gun  on 
either  side,  moved  them  through  the  country  and  finally  left 
them  in  Canada.  I  designed  to  have  done  the  same  thing 
again  on  a  larger  scale.  That  was  all  I  intended.  T  never 
did  intend  murder  or  treason,  or  the  destruction  of  property, 
or  to  excite  or  incite  slaves  to  rebellion  or  to  make  insurrec- 
J.ipn.  I  have  another  objection  and  that  is  that  it  is  unjust 
that  I  should  suffer  such  a  penalty.  Had  I  interfered  in  the 
manner  which  I  admit,  and  which  I  admit  has  been  fairly 
proved,  for  I  admire  the  truthfulness  and  candor  of  the 
greater  portion  of  the  witnesses  who  have  testified  in  this 
case, — had  I  so  interfered  in  behalf  of  the  rich,  the  powerful, 
the  intelligent,  the  so-called  great ;  or  in  behalf  of  any  of 
their  friends,  either  father,  mother,  sister,  brother,  wife  or 
children,  or  any  of  that  class,  and  suffered  and  sacrificed 
what  I  have  in  this  interference,  it  would  have  been  all  right 
and  everv  man  in  this  court  would  have  deemed  it  an  act 


THE   RAID   OF   JOHN   BROWN  15 


worthy  of  reward  rather  than  punishment.  This  court 
acknowledges  as  I  suppose  the  validity  of  the  law  of  God 
I  see  a  (book  kissed  here  which  I  suppose  is  the  Bible,  or 
at  least  the  New  Testament.  That  teaches  me  that  all  things, 
whatsoever  I  would  that  men  should  do  to  me  I  should  do 
even  unto  them.  It  teaches  me  further  to  'Remember  them 
that  are  in  bonds  as  bound  with  them.'  I  endeavored  to  act 
up  to  that  instruction.  I  say  that  I  am  yet  too  young  to 
understand  that  God  is  any  respecter  of  persons.  I  believe 
that  to  have  interfered  as  I  have  done,  as  I  have  always  ad 
mitted  freely  I  have  done,  in  behalf  of  His  despised  poor 
was  not  wrong  but  right.  Now  if  it  is  deemed  necessary 
that  I  should  forfeit  my  life  for  the  furtherance  of  the  ends 
of  justice,  and  mingle  my  blood  further  with  the  blood  of 
my  children  and  with  the  blood  of  millions  in  this  slave  coun 
try  whose  rights  are  disregarded  by  wicked,  cruel  and  unjust 
enactments,  I  submit.  So  let  it  be  done. 

"Let  me  say  one  word  further.  I  feel  entirely  satisfied  with 
the  treatment  I  have  received  on  my  trial.  Considering  all 
the  circumstances  it  has  been  more  generous  than  I  expected. 
But  I  feel  no  consciousness  of  guilt.  I  never  had  any  design 
against  the  life  of  any  person,  nor  any  disposition  to  commit 
treason  or  excite  slaves  to  rebellion  or  make  any  general  in 
surrection.  I  never  encouraged  any  man  to  do  so  but  always 
discouraged  any  idea  of  the  kind. 

"Let  me  say  a  word  in  regard  to  the  statements  made 
by  some  of  those  connected  with  me.  I  hear  it  has  been  stated 
by  some  of  them  that  I  induced  them  to  join  me.  But  the 
contrary  is  true.  I  do  not  say  this  to  injure  them,  but  as  Re 
gards  their  weakness.  There  is  not  one  of  them  but  joined 
me  of  his  own  accord  and  the  greater  part  of  them  at  their  own 
expense.  A  number  of  them  I  never  saw,  and  never  had,  a 
word  of  conversation  with,  till  the  day  they  came  to  me  and 
that  was  for  the  purpose  I  have  stated.  Now  I  am  done." 

Brown's  statement  was  not  exactly  sustained  by  the 
facts.  Why  had  he  collected  the  Sharpe's  rifles,  the  pikes, 
the -kegs  of  powder,  many  thousands  of  caps  and  much  war 
like  material  at  the  Kennedy  farm?  Why  did  he  and  other 


(J 

16  Q^JUVlvvft  J^THE   RAID   OF   JOHN   BROWN 


armed  men,  break  into  the  United  States  Armory  and  Arsenal, 
make  portholes  in  the  engine  house,  shoot  and  kill  citizens 
and  surround  their  own  imprisoned  persons  with  prominent 
men  as  hostages?  But  everybody  in  the  court  house  be 
lieved  the  old  man  when  he  said  that  he  did  everything  with 
a  solitary  motive,  the  liberation  of  the  slaves. 

Judge  Parker  could,  under  his  oath,  do  nothing  else  than 

/to  sentence  him  to  be  hung.     He  fixed  the  date  for  Friday, 

/  the   second  of  December.     Brown's   counsel  appealed  to  the 

,V_Supreme    Court    of    Virginia.     Its    five    judges    unanimously 

sustained   the   action  of  the  Jefferson   county   court. 

Brown  was  hung  on  the  bright  and  beautiful  morning  of 
December  2nd  at  11:15  o'clock.  At  his  request  Andrew 
Hunter  wrote  his  will.  He  then  visited  his  fellow  prisoners 
who  were  all  executed  at  a  later  date.  He  rode  to  his  death 
between  Sheriff  Campbell  and  Captain  Avis  in  a  furniture 
wagon  drawn  by  two  white  horses.  He  did  not  ride  seated 
on  his  coffin  as  some  of  his  chief  eulogists  have  affirmed. 
The  wagon  was  escorted  to  the  scaffold  by  State  military 
companies.  No  citizens  were  allowed  near  to  the  jail. 
Hence  he  did  not  kiss  any  negro  baby  as  he  emerged  from 
his  prison,  as  Mr.  Whittier  has  described  in  a  poem  on  the 
event  and  as  artists  have  memorialized  in  paintings.  The 
utter  absurdity  of  such  an  incident  occurring  under  such  sur 
roundings  any  Virginian  will  see.  Avis,  Campbell  and 
Hunter  publicly  denied  it.  But  the  story  will  doubtless 
have  immortality.  In  one  of  the  companies  of  soldiers 
walked  the  actor  John  AVilkes  Booth,  the  infamous  assassin 
of  Abraham  L,inco>ln.  At  the  head  of  the  Lexington  cadets 
walked  Professor  Thomas  Jefferson  Jackson,  who  became 
an  able  Confederate  General  and  is  best  known  to  the  world 
as  "Stonewall  Jackson."  As  the  party  neared  the  gallows 
Brown  gazed  on  the  glorious  panorama  of  mountain  and 
landscape  scenery.  Then  he  said :  "This  is  a  beautiful 
country."  He  wore  a  black  slouch  hat  with  the  front  tipped 
jtip.  Reaching  the  scaffold  the  numerous  State  troops 
formed  into  a  hollow  square.  Brown  mounted  the  platform 
without  trepidation.  Standing  on  the  drop  he  said  to  the 


THE   RAID   OF    JOHN    BROWN  17 


sheriff  and  his  assistants :  ''Gentlemen !  I  thank  you  for 
your  kindness  to  me.  I  am  ready  at  any  time.  Do  not 
keep  me  waiting1."  The  drop  fell  and  in  ten  minutes  Dr. 
Mason  pronounced  him  dead.  That  evening  Mrs.  Brown 
and  her  friends  received  the  casket  at  Harper's  Ferry  and 
accompanied  it  to  the  old  home  at  North  Elba,  N.  Y.  His 
funeral,  as  reported  by  the  metropolitan  papers,  took  place 
there  six  days  after  his  execution.  An  immense  concourse 
was  in  attendance.  The  conspicuous  and  brilliant  orator, 
Wendell  Phillips,  delivered  the  address.  He  closed  it  with 
these  words :  "'In  this  cottage  he  girded  himself  and  went 
forth  to  battle.  Fuller  success  than  his  heart  ever  dreamed 
of  God  had  granted  him.  He  sleeps  in  the  blessings  of  the 
crushed  and  the  poor.  Men  believe  more  firmly  in  virtue 
now  that  such  a  man  has  lived."  Personally  I  remained  in 
Virginia. 

On  the  day  that  Brown  was  hung  Martyr  Services,  as 
they  were  called,  were  held  in  many  Northern  localities.  At 
Concord,  Dr.  Edmund  Sears  read  a  poem  in  which  are  these 
stanzas: 

"Not  any  spot,  six  feet  by  two 

Will  hold  a  man  like  thee : 
John   Brown   will    tramp   the   shaking   earth 

From  Blue  Ridge  to  the  sea 
Till  the  strong  angel  comes  at  length 

And  opes  each  dungeon  door ; 
And   God's   Great   Charter  holds  and  waves 

O'er  all  the  humble  poor. 

And   then   the  humble   poor  may  come 

In  that  far  distant  day, 
And  from  the  felon's  nameless  grave 

Will   brush   the  leaves   away : 
And  gray  old  men  will  point  the  spot 

Beneath   the  pine   tree's  shade, 
As  children  ask  with  streaming  eyes 

Where  old  John  Brown  was  laid." 


18  THE   RAID   OF   JOHN   BROWN 


Before  he  was  executed  many  threatening  communica 
tions  were  received  by  the  Virginia  State  and  Jefferson 
County  officers.  Large  numbers  of  E.  C.  Stedman's  poem, 
entitled  "John  Brown  of  Ossawattamie,"  were  scattered 
about  Charlestown.  One  stanza  reads  as  follows: 

"But  Virginians!     Don't  do  it,  for  I  tell  you 

that  the  flagon, 
Filled  with  blood  of  Old  Brown's  offspring, 

was    first    poured    by    Southern    hands ; 
And  each  drop  from  Old  Brown's  life  veins, 

like  the  red  gore  of  the  dragon. 
May  spring  up,  a  vengeful  Fury,  hissing  through 

your   slave-worn   lands : 
And  Old  Brown, 
Ossowattamie   Brown, 
May  trouble  you  more  than  ever. 
When   you've   nailed   his   coffin   down.'' 

/       Whether    they    be    from    the    Xorth    or    the    South,    fair- 
/minded  men,  who  are  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  history 
/  of   this    raid,    can    hardly    cherish    any    doubt    concerning   the 
/    turpitude  of  the  invasion,  the  fairness  of  Brown's  trial  and  the 
Ijustice  of  his  conviction  and  execution.     He     fell  under  the 
direction  of  a  misguided  conscience.     The  noble  endowment 
that  philosophers  call  conscience,  that  p;ives  its  verdicts  as  to 
the    moral    merit    or    demerit    of   actions    and    affections,    was 
strangely   warped    in    Brown's   intense    and    brave    character. 
The  possession  of  this  faculty  of  conscience  is  the   massive 
foundation   of  all   human   responsibility.     Illustrations  of  the 
moral   enormities  that  a  perverted  conscience  can  perpetrate 
are  manifold  along  the  pages  of  sacred  and  secular  history. 
I     When   Jesus   looked   down   the   aisles   of  the   future,   He 
lid  to  His  disciples  that  the  men  who  would  finally  transfig- 
'iire  them  into  martyrs  Avould  murder  them  in  the  belief  tha: 
they  were  rendering  acceptable  service  to  God. 

Paul  declared  that  he  regarded  himself  as  meeting  the 
divine  approval  when  he  was  persecuting  and  murdering 
the  primitive  Christians. 


THE   RAID   OF   JOHN   BROWN  19 


When  the  officers  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  saw  the 
agonies  of  the  victims  who  refused  to  renounce  their  relig 
ious  creeds  they  joyfully  exclaimed,  "Let  God  be  glorified." 

Charles  the  Ninth  of  France  said  he  was  conscientious 
in  ordering  the  Saint  Bartholomew  massacre  that  resulted  in 
the  murder  in  French  cities  of  tens  of  thousands  of  Chris 
tian  Hugenots. 

The  Bloody  Queen,  Mary  Tudor,  said  she  had  a  pure 
conscience  when  she  sent  to  the  scaffold  the  learned  and  gen 
tle  young  Ex-Queen  Lady  Jane  Grey.  Thousands  of  crim 
inals  have  sheltered  their  crimes  in  the  temple  of  Conscience. 

The  trend  of  Brown's  constant  defence  was  that  he  obey-  ' 
ed  his  conscience.     His  lawless  conduct,  the  death  of  many 
of  his  party   and  the  murder  ot    V  irginia  citizens   gave  him 
verv 

wind  and  reaped 
word,  the  whirlwind. 

Brown's  high  Calvinism  bordered  on  fatalism.  Oliver 
Cromwell  never  believed  more  radically  in  the  foreordma- 
tion  of  all  human  actions  than  did  he.  When  questioned  con 
cerning  the  failure  of  this  invasion  he  replied :  "All  of  our  act- 


c>     ^^i-uv-i^n^ v.         J--HO     idvvivoo     v^vjina  u*~ L,     LIH~     \a\-ciLii     \JL     many 

s   party   and  the  murder  ot    V  irginia  citizens   gave  him 

little   apparent   intellectual    unrest"    He   sowed   to   the 

and  reaped  the  logical  harvest,  if  it  is  the  appropriate 

— JTI,  ~     T^.U  :„•!-_-: 4 


ions,  even  all  of  the  follies  that  led  to  this  disaster,  were  de 
creed  to  happen  ages  before  the  world  was  mad'eT' When 
Judge  Russell  visited  him  he  said :  "I  know  that  the  very 
errors  by  which  my  scheme  was  marred  were  decreed  before 
the  world  was  made.  I  had  no  more  to  do  with  the  course  I 
pursued  than  a  shot  leaving  a  cannon  has  to  do  with  the  spot 
where  it  shall  fall." 

It  is  when  patriotic  men  read  the  story  of  "John  Brown's 
Raid''  by  the  torches  of  President  Lincoln's  early  election,  the 
Civil  War  and  the  Emancipation  of  all  American  slaves,  that 
they  seem  to  become  blind  to  the  terrible  criminal  features 
of  the  invasion  and  look  only  at  the  national  results  and  the 
magnificient  courage,  benevolent  motives  and  supreme  self- 
sacrifice  of  this  marty^x  Multitudes  of  visionary  men  regard  } 
him  as  a  divinely  appointed  John  the  Baptist  raised  up  to 
usher  in  the  day  of  physical  freedom  for  every  slave  on 
American  soil  and  their  posterity  to  the  end  of  time.  They 


20  THE   RAID   OF   JOHN   BROWX 


/  claim  that  in  this  instance  "The  End  has  justified  the  Means." 
His  raid  made  the  North  solid  against  the  slave  system  and 
the  South  as  solid  against  anti-slavery  theories  and  agitators. 
Before  the  Brown  raid  the  vote  for  John  C.  Fremont,  the  Re 
publican  candidate  for  President,  was  1341000.  James  Buch 
anan  had  496000  majority.  The  year  after  the  raid  Abraham 
Lincoln  received  1886000  votes  for  President  and  had  491000 
majority  over  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  when  the  South  voted  for 

xanother  Democrat.  Fremont  had  114  votes  in  the  Elec 
toral  Col1ege.  Lincoln  had  180.  Under  his  presidency  the 
emancipation  of  every  slave  on  the  national  soil  took  place. 
The  nations  of  Europe  learned  for  the  first  time  the  important 
lesson  that  the  United  States  was  able  to  maintain  its  nation 
al  unity. ('This  raid  beyond  question  hastened  in  the  Civil 
War.  I  have  seen  Federal  regiments  marching  on  to  battle 

\  enthusiastically  singing : 

\          "John  Brown's  body  lies  a  mould' ring  in  the  grave, 
But  his  soul  is  marching  on." 

A  few  weeks  after  Brown's  execution  Victor  Hugo  said, 
"What  the  South  slew  last  December  was  not  John  Brown 
but  slavery."  His  statement  developed  into  a  colossal  histori 
cal  truth.  The  great  statesman,  orator  and  senator,  John  J. 
Ingalls  of  Kansas,  closed  an  oration  with  these  remarkable 
words : 

"Carlyle  says  that  when  any  great  change  in  human  so 
ciety  is  to  be  wrought  God  raises  up  men  to  whom  that 
change  is  made  to  appear  as  the  one  thing  needful  and  ab 
solutely  indispensable.  Scholars,  orators,  poets,  philanthro 
pists,  play  their  parts,  but  the  crisis  comes  at  last  through 
some  one  who  is  stigmatized  as  a  fanatic  by  his  contempor 
aries,  and  whom  the  supporters  of  the  systems  he  assails 
crucify  between  theives  or  gibbet  as  a  felon.  The  man  who 
is  not  afraid  to  die  for  an  idea  is  the  most  potential  and  con 
vincing  advocate. 

"Already  the  great  intellectual  leaders  of  the  movement 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery  are  dead.  The  student  of  the 
future  will  exhume  their  orations,  arguments  and  state  pa 
pers,  as  a  part  of  the  subterranean  history  of  the  epoch. 


THE   RAID   OF   JOHN   BROWN  21 


The  antiquarian  will  dig  up  their  remains  from  the  alluvial 
drift  of  the  period,  and  construe  their  relations  to  the  great 
events  in  which  they  were  actors.  But  the  three  men  of  this 
era  who  will  loom  forever  against  the  remotest  horizon  of 
time,  as  the  pyramids  against  the  voiceless  desert,  or  moun 
tain  peaks  over  the  subordinate  plains,  are  Abraham  Lincoln, 
Ulysses  S.  Grant  and  old  John  Brown  of  Ossowattamie." 

Senator  Ingalls  well  knew  that  Brown  had  no  such  in 
tellectual  massiveness,  or  splendid  culture,  as  had  Webster, 
Clay,  Jefferson,  Sumner,  and  many  other  eminent  Ameri 
cans.  He  referred  to  the  majesty  of  personal  achievements. 
From  this  standpoint  men  like  Garabaldi,  Morse,  Harriman, 
Edison,  Roosevelt  and  Cook,  the  Arctic  explorer  have  been 
great.  Brown's  life  was  a  perpetual  sacrifice  for  the  annihila 
tion  of  American  slavery.  Very  defective  as  a  military  lead 
er  he  was  always  ready  to  do,  dare  and  die  to  assist  in  this 
work.  Even  today  tens  of  thousands  of  educated  men  re 


gard  him  as  a  monomaniac  concerning  the  abolition  of 
slavery.  For  many  years,  in  the  state  of  Kansas,  he  had  "per^ 
mitted  his  own  life,  and  the  lite  ot  each  ot  his  sons,  to  be 
in  continual  peril  that  they  might  assist  in  placing  Kansas 
"in  the  constellation  of  free  States. — Men  like  Gernt  bmith 
and  John  L.  JStearns  financed  his  schemes  from  their  wrealth. 
Men  like  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson, 
George  B.  Cheever,  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  Wendell  Phil 
lips  and  Theodore  Parker,  delivered  eulogies  on  Brown  af 
ter  he  had  been  hung.  They  most  eloquently  denounced  slav 
ery  from  pulpits  and  platforms;  but  they  lived  in  the  lime 
light  of  oratorical  popularity  and  flourished  amidst  luxurious 
ease.  To  Brown's  immortal  credit  be  it  said  that  he  gave 
dom estic  security,  his  humble  fortune,  his  perillous  work. 
Hie  lives  of  his  .cherished  sons  and  his  own  blood  and  life  for 
the  anti-slavery  opinions  that  wore  anchored  in  his  soul.  His 
prison  letters  to  many  friends  are  full  of  intrepidity,  submis 
sion  to  the  divine  providence  and  heroic  anticipations  of  im 
mortal  blessedness.  Ten  minutes  before  he  left  his  jail  cell 
for  the  gallows  he  handed  to  a  prison  official  a  sheet  of  paper 
on  which  he  had  written  these  words:  "I,  John  Brown,  am 


22  THE   RAID   OF   JOHN   BROWN 


quite  certain  that  the  crimes  of  this  guilty  land  will  never  be 
purged  away  but  with  blood,  I  had,  as  I  now  think,  vainly 
flattered  myself  that  without  very  much  bloodshed  it  might 
be  done." 

His  surpassing  bravery  and  self-sacrificing  candor  pro 
foundly  impressed  eminent  Virginians.  Governor  Henry 
A.  Wise  said:  "He  is  a  bundle  of  the  best  nerves  I  ever  saw, 
cut  and  thrust;  and  bleeding  and  in  bonds.  He  is  a  man  of 
clear  head,  of  courage,  fortitude  and  simple  ingenuousness. 
He  is  cool,  collected,  indomitable;  and  it  is  but  just  to  him 
to  say  that  he  was  humane  to  his  prisoners.  He  is  a  fanatic, 
but  firm,  and  truthful  and  intelligent."  Colonel  Lewis  W. 
Washington  and  Captain  John  E.  P.  Dangerneld  bore  testi 
mony  to  his  courage. 

Brown's  wonderful  moral  heroism  became  resplendent 
after  Judge  Richard  Parker  had  sentenced  him  to  death. 
Many  of  his  letters  to  his  friends,  collected  and  published  by 
Mr.  F.  B.  Sanford)  would  have  done  honor  to  the  pen  of  Paul. 
He  was  exultant  from  the  standpoint  of  a  happy  spiritual 
experience  and  triumphant  as  he  gazed  beyond  this  mortal 
life.  In  nne  of  his  last  letters  he  wrote  these  words:  "I  sleep 
as  peacefully  as  an  infant,  or  if  I  am  wakeful  glorious  thoughts 
come  to  me  entertaining  my  mind.  I  do  not  believe  I  shall 
deny  my  Lord  and  Master,  Jesus  Christ,  in  this  prison  or  on 
the  scaffold.  But  I  should  do  so  if  I  denied  my  principles 
against  slavery."  Surely  he  must  have  been  sincere  as  he 
faced  eternity. 

As  early  as  1820  Tolm  Ouincv  Adams  said  of  the  over 
throw  of  American  slavery,  "The  object  is  vast  in  its  com 
pass,  awful  in  its  prospects  and  sublime  and  beautiful  in  its 
issues.  A  life  devoted  to  it  would  be  nobly  spent  or  sacri- 
ficed."  John  Brown,  along  illegal  and  criminal  lines,  placed 
before  the  world  such  a  life  and  death.  He  saw  clearly  what 
American  statesmen  of  his  period  saw  but  dimly.  Beyond 
all  question  he  died  as  emphatically  for  the  overthrow  of 
slavery  as  Paul  died  for  the  honor  of  Christianity.  Three 
of  his  favorite  books  were  the  life  stories  of  men  of  cjeat 


THE   RAID   OF   JOHN   BROWN  23 

achievements: —  "The  Life  of  Oliver  Cromwell/'  "The  Life 
of  Marco  Bozarris,"  and  "The  Life  of  William  Wallace." 

Some  years  ago,  in  an  oration  delivered  at  Harper's  Ferry\ 
the  distinguished  freedman  and  orator,  the  late  Frederick) 
Douglass,  said:  "If  John  Brown  did  not  end  the  war  th$( 
ended  slavery  he  did  at  least  begin  the  war  that  ended  slaverv/ 
If  we  look  over  the  dates,  places  and  men  for  which 
this  honor  is  claimed  wre  shall  find  that  not  Carolina,  but 
Virginia ;  not  Fort  Sumter,  tyut  Harper's  Ferry  and  the 
United  States  Arsenal ;  not  Major  Anderson,  but  John  Brown, 
began  the  war  that  ended  American  slavery  and  made  this 
a  free  republic.  Until  this  blow  was  struck  the  prospect  was 
dim,  shadowy  and  uncertain.  The  irrepressible  conflict  was 
one  of  words,  votes  and  compromises.  When  John  Brown 
stretched  forth  his  arm  the  sky  was  cleared,  the  time  for 
compromise  was  gone,  the  armed  hosts  stood  face  to  face 
over  the  chasm  of  a  broken  Union  and  the  clash  of  arms  was 
at  hand." 

And  let  it  be  remembered  that  when  Brown  had  told 
Douglass  the  details  of  his  proposed  invasion  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  Douglass  begged  him  to  abandon  his  plans  and  assured 
him  that  they  would  end,  as  they  did,  in  untold  disaster. 

The  chief  authors  who  have  written  concerning  John 
Brown  and  his  invasion  were  not  in  Virginia  during  the  forty- 
four  days  intervening  between  the  raid  and  his  execution. 
They  were  destitute  of  any  personal  knowledge  of  the  facts. 
They  were  bitter  enemies  of  the  South  and  most  intense  ad 
mirers  of  the  intrepid  man  executed  at  Charlestown.  Their 
narratives  are  replete  with  errors  and  contain  much  romance 
They  are,  generally,  saturated  with  misrepresentation  of  the 
Virginia  people  and  are  burdened  with  eulogistic  apologies  for 
Brown's  conduct  in  Virginia.  Because  I  was  on  the  ground 
and  saw  things  as  they  occurred ;  be'cause  I  have  kept 
touch  with  Brown  literature  ;  and  because  I  am  in  love  witU 
the  Truth  I  believe  that  my  story  is  worthy  of  public  con 
fidence. 

I  have  known  Virginians,  personally,  for  over  fifty  years. 
My  long  career,  as  a  minister  of  Christ,  was  begun   among 


24  THE   RAID   OF   JOHN   BROWN 

them.  They  have  not  deserved  the  traduction  Brown's  eulo 
gists  have  heaped  on  them.  His  unfortunate  execution  was 
the  logical  result  of  his  criminal  and  bloody  raid.  The  Vir 
ginia  people  have  been  noble  in  chivalry,  bounteous  in  hos 
pitality,  sublime  in  kindness  of  heart  and  life  and  models  of 
high  social  and  moral  purity. 

Spartacus  led  the  way  for  the  destruction  of  Roman 
slavery.  John  Brown  performed  a  similar  service  for  the 
ArngHrnri  shores.  He  mingled  in  his  strange  character  fanat 
ic  ismjmd_couraj£e — eccentricity  and  a  prophetical  insight  into 
future  events — a  warped  conscience  and  a  sublime  martyr 
heroism.  But  whether  in  safety  or  peril,  at  home  or  in  pris 
on,  in  battle  or  on  the  scaffold,  this  mysterious  man  intensely 
cherished  the  conviction  that  Joanna  Baillie  imbedded  into 
poetrv : 

"The  strength  of  man  sinks  in  the  hour  of  trial. 

But  there  doth  live  a  power  that  for  the  battle 
Girdeth  the  weak." 


